Cliopatria

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And so, after 8 1/4 years and over 1,100,000 visits, we bid farewell to Cliopatria. Before going, she wishes to thank her hosts at History News Network, Rick Shenkman and David Walsh, for their hospitality.

by Cliopatria

by Cliopatria

Welcome to the March 3, 2012 edition of the military history carnival. This is the 30th edition of the military history carnival, something of a minor landmark. Once again, we have a good range of submissions this Carnival, ranging from the ancient to the modern.

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Kelly Hignett hosts History Carnival CVII at The View East on Thursday 1 March. Send nominations of the best in February's history blogging to thevieweast*at*gmail*dot*com or use the form. David Silby hosts Military History Carnival XXX here at Cliopatria on Thursday 1 March. Use the form to submit nominations of the best in military history blogging since 1 December 2011.

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After the grinding pessimism of my previous post, I think it rather behoves me to also look at the question, what can we do, and specifically for this audience, what's the role of the historian in this? I'm much less certain I have any answers here, but I have some thoughts so I thought I would put them up to be shot at.

I suspect, myself, that the morally correct response for the committed democrat in a situation like this is to quit his or her job, whatever it may be, start and then manage and fund-raise for a new party eschewing the principles they'd actually like to see mattering in politics. It wouldn't work, probably, but it would be ethical, and I honestly think that's what I should do. But I really really don't want to, I want to pay someone else to run the country for me so I can get on with my research, which is what I'm actually passionate about. So hopefully there is a rôle for a historian in this, right?

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The infrequency with which I post at Cliopatria has a lot to do with my not really understanding what I have to say that might be of interest to its largely-silent audience, but I had at least hoped to keep that audience updated on the developments in the defunding of the humanities in UK universities. Unfortunately, since I last did that, there have been no changes worth reporting. The widespread student protesting, the Oxford vote of no confidence and similar actions elsewhere, the subsequent meetings of vice-chancellors with the UK Prime Minister David Cameron,1 all made no difference at all to the state of the government's policy, which remains to cut all support for teaching in the humanities and to hang much of what research is funded on its social impact.